“You were wrong, Sazed,” Marsh said quietly. “Once, I was not a warrior, but that has changed. You spent the last two years teaching, but I spent them killing. Killing so many people. …”
Marsh stepped forward, and Sazed coughed, trying to get his bruised body to move. He worried that he’d rebroken his arm. He tapped zinc again, speeding up his thoughts, but that didn’t help his body move. He could only watch—more fully aware of his predicament and unable to do a thing to stop it—as Marsh picked up the fallen lamp.
The candle went out.
Yet, Sazed could still see Marsh’s face. Blood dripped from the crushed socket, making the man’s expression even harder to read. The Inquisitor seemed … sorrowful as he raised the lamp in a clawlike grip, intending to smash it down into Sazed’s face.
Wait, Sazed thought. Where is that light coming from?
A dueling cane smashed against the back of Marsh’s head, shattering and throwing up splinters.
Vin and Elend walked up to the pool. Elend knelt quietly beside it, but Vin just stood. Staring at the glittering waters.
They were gathered in a small depression in the rock, and they looked thick—like metal. A silvery white, glowing liquid metal. The Well was only a few feet across, but its power loomed in her mind.
Vin was so enraptured by the beautiful pool, in fact, that she didn’t notice the mist spirit until Elend’s grip tightened on her arm. She looked up, noticing the spirit standing before them. It seemed to have its head bowed, but as she turned, its shadowy form stood up straighter.
She’d never seen the creature outside of the mist. It still wasn’t completely … whole. Mist puffed from its body, flowing downward, creating its amorphous form. A persistent pattern.
Vin hissed quietly, pulling out a dagger.
“Wait!” Elend said, standing.
She frowned, shooting him a glance.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous, Vin,” he said, stepping away from her, toward the spirit.
“Elend, no!” she said, but he gently shook her free.
“It visited me while you were gone, Vin,” he explained. “It didn’t hurt me. It just … seemed like it wanted me to know something.” He smiled, still wearing his nondescript cloak and traveling clothing, and walked slowly up to the mist spirit. “What is it you want?”
The mist spirit stood immobile for a moment, then it raised its arm. Something flashed, reflecting the pool’s light.
“No!” Vin screamed, dashing forward as the spirit slashed across Elend’s gut. Elend grunted in pain, then stumbled back.
“Elend!” Vin said, scrambling to Elend’s side as he slipped and fell to the ground. The spirit backed away, dripping blood from somewhere within its deceptively incorporeal form. Elend’s blood.
Elend lay, shocked, eyes wide. Vin flared pewter and ripped open the front of his jacket, exposing the wound. The spirit had cut deeply into his stomach, slashing the gut open.
“No … no … no …” Vin said, mind growing numb, Elend’s blood on her hands.
The wound was very bad. Deadly.
Ham dropped the broken cane, one arm still in a sling. The beefy Thug looked incredibly pleased with himself as he stepped over Marsh’s body and reached his good hand toward Sazed.
“Didn’t expect to find you here, Saze,” the Thug said.
Dazed, Sazed took the hand and climbed to his feet. He stumbled over Marsh’s body, somehow distractedly knowing that a simple club to the head wouldn’t be enough to kill the creature. Yet Sazed was too addled to care. He picked up his candle, lit it from Ham’s lantern, then made his way toward the stairs, forcing himself onward.
He had to keep going. He had to get to Vin.
Vin cradled Elend in her arms, her cloak forming a hasty—and dreadfully inadequate—bandage around his torso.
“I love you,” she whispered, tears warm on her cold cheeks. “Elend, I love you. I love you. …”
Love wouldn’t be enough. He was trembling, eyes staring upward, barely able to focus. He gasped, and blood bubbled in his spittle.
She turned to the side, numbly realizing where she knelt. The pool glowed beside her, just inches from where Elend had fallen. Some of his blood had dribbled into the pool, though it didn’t mix with the liquid metal.
I can save him, she realized. The power of creation rests just inches from my fingers. This was the place where Rashek had ascended to godhood. The Well of Ascension.
She looked back at Elend, at his dying eyes. He tried to focus on her, but he seemed to be having trouble controlling his muscles. It seemed like … he was trying to smile.
Vin rolled up her coat and put it beneath his head. Then, wearing just her trousers and shirt, she walked up to the pool. She could hear it thumping. As if … calling to her. Calling for her to join with it.
She stepped onto the pool. It resisted her touch, but her foot began to sink, slowly. She stepped forward, moving into the center of the pool, waiting as she sank. Within seconds, the pool was up to her chest, the glowing liquid all around her.
She took a breath, then leaned her head back, looking up as the pool absorbed her, covering her face.
Sazed stumbled down the stairs, candle held in quivering fingers. Ham was calling after him. He passed a confused Spook on the landing below, and ignored the boy’s questions.
However, as he began to make his way down to the cavern floor, he slowed. A small tremor ran through the rock.
Somehow, he knew that he was too late.
The power came upon her suddenly.
She felt the liquid pressing against her, creeping into her body, crawling, forcing its way through the pores and openings in her skin. She opened her mouth to scream, and it rushed in that way too, choking her, gagging her.
With a sudden flare, her earlobe began to hurt. She cried out, pulling her earring free, dropping it into the depths. She pulled off her sash, letting it—and her Allomantic vials—go as well, removing the only metals on her person.
Then she started to burn. She recognized the sensation: it was exactly like the feeling of burning metals in her stomach, except it came from her entire body. Her skin flared, her muscles flamed, and her very bones seemed on fire. She gasped, and realized the metal was gone from her throat.
She was glowing. She felt the power within, as if it were trying to burst back out. It was like the strength she gained by burning pewter, but amazingly more potent. It was a force of incredible capacity. It would have been beyond her ability to understand, but it expanded her mind, forcing her to grow and comprehend what she now possessed.
She could remake the world. She could push back the mists. She could feed millions with the wave of her hand, punish the evil, protect the weak. She was in awe of herself. The cavern was as if translucent around her, and she saw the entire world spreading, a magnificent sphere upon which life could exist only in a small little area at the poles. She could fix that. She could make things better. She could …
She could save Elend.
She glanced down and saw him dying. She immediately understood what was wrong with him. She could fix his damaged skin and sliced organs.
You mustn’t do it, child.
Vin looked up with shock.
You know what you must do, the Voice said, whispering to her. It sounded aged. Kindly.